BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s basketball team, undefeated at home, returns to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Wednesday night for the first of three pre-Christmas home games as the Tigers host Gardner-Webb in a game scheduled for an early 6 p.m. tip.
Tickets for the game are available all day on Wednesday at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office, online at LSUtix.net and available beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center.
Paul Sunderland and Sean Farnham will have the call on the SEC Network and the radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network affiliates with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and host Kevin Ford courtside. The flagship for the Network is Guaranty Broadcasting’s Eagle 98.1 FM.
The broadcast is also scheduled for KSYL-AM in Alexandria, WBOX-FM in Bogalusa, KFNV-FM in Ferriday, KJIN-AM in Houma, KJNA-FM in Jena, KLWB-FM in Lafayette/Opelousas, KXZZ-AM in Lake Charles, KJAE-FM, Leesville, KMLB-AM, Monroe, KFRA-AM, Morgan City, WWL-AM in New Orleans, KRUS-AM in Ruston, KWKH-AM in Shreveport, KTJZ-FM Tallulah, WFCG-FM in Tylertown, Mississippi and KVPI-AM in Ville Platte.
LSU is 4-4 on the season, 4-0 at the Maravich Center, while Gardner-Webb is 4-6. The Runnin’ Bulldogs are coming off a 73-53 win at Furman this past Saturday. The Tigers forced overtime at Houston when Keith Hornsby hit a trey with seven seconds to play, but fell 105-98 as LSU surrendered 100 points for the second straight game.
Hornsby in his return to play after pre-season surgery hit six treys and scored 32 points, while Keith Hornsby had 27 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Simmons had his sixth consecutive double double with 13 points and 14 rebounds. But it was on the boards and defensive drives that kept putting LSU in a jam as Houston out rebounded LSU, 46-33, and 17-9 on the offensive boards. That also helped the Cougars to a 20-8 advantage in second chance points.
Gardner-Webb in its win in its last out on the road got 16 points from Adonis Burbage to lead all scorers. He had 13 overall and eight straight in the second half to help put the game out of reach. The Runnin’ Bulldogs connected on 57 percent (28-of-49) of its shots on the night while holding Furman to a 39.2 percent clip from the field.
Tyrell Nelson is the leading scorer on the team, averaging 14.3 points a game. Nelson was one of the leading scorers for GWU when LSU and the Runnin’ Bulldogs opened last season at the Maravich Center. Gardner-Webb led at the half a year ago before the Tigers were able to get away with a 93-82 win.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media after practice on Tuesday and here were some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“We are looking forward to another challenge (Wednesday) against another opponent that we feel like we have an opportunity to grow and get better. We had a setback there at Houston. Unfortunately for us, we did not play the caliber of defense or rebound the basketball at the rate we needed to have an opportunity to get a really good win against a very improved basketball team from a year ago. We do know the areas we have to continue to get better. We are excited about Keith Hornsby being able to dress out and play at the level that he did. We are excited about Craig Victor being available for us (Wednesday) to have an opportunity to play in his first game since transferring from Arizona. Craig’s eligibility won’t be the cure-all, but it will certainly help us in going in the right direction in some areas that we need to make sure we get better at in the near future. Our guys understand that we have all of the tools that are necessary. It’s just that we have to make sure that we are able to transfer those things to the floor to allow it to happen at the rate that we need it to for us to win at the level we are expecting.”
On Hornsby and Victor’s minutes…
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to manage Keith (Hornsby)’s minutes because of the rate he was playing. He wound up playing 30-something minutes Sunday for us. We wanted to do a much better job of trying to curtail his minutes. I thought at the rate he was playing, he wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue out there on the floor, and I think it speaks volumes to his training and preparation even during his rehab time after his injury. Craig’s deal may be a little bit different. He hasn’t been in any games for us. We are sure that he’s been training, working out in practice every day. It will be a little different for him with the lights on in a game setting. We are looking forward to it. We hope he can give us some positive minutes on both ends of the floor (Wednesday), and that’s something we look forward to.”
On easing Victor into the games…
“One of the things we’ve tried to make sure that Craig (Victor)… he’s been utilizing our practices as a game. That’s what his approach needed to be until his time was able to come. He need to work so that when his time was on the floor to be out there, he had to be going at a certain rate and trying to rebound and defend, doing things at the rate that we would have to do it in a game. We are hopeful that will carry over for him (Wednesday) night. He’s eager and is excited about it. He’s one of those guys that we sincerely feel that his toughness and desire to do the things that we need in terms of rebounding … will carry over for us.”
On Jalyn Patterson‘s status…
“Jalyn (Patterson) didn’t practice the last two days. They may take a look at him tomorrow. At best, it may be a game-time decision. If not, we are hopeful that he is back for the weekend. We are not counting him out, at this point, for (Wednesday)’s game.”
On gaining positive momentum…
“Win. I think that’s the main thing, winning and trying to play well. Doing that is the most important thing. It necessarily doesn’t heal everything, but you certainly make sure that you feel a lot better along the way as you’re working. Then, you have an opportunity to see your work really paying off for you. We’ve been close. We were so close in the Houston game. We had an opportunity to get a victory even after Ben (Simmons) fouled out. Unfortunately, they did what they needed to at home. Momentum certainly swung in their direction.”
On rebounding and how to fix the issue…
“Effort. Effort comes down to it. If you look at the line from our rebounding the other night, we had Ben (Simmons) with 14. We had Tim (Quarterman) 10. We didn’t have anybody else rebounding over two. You look at Houston’s line, and they had one guy averaging one rebound a game. He had 10 on the night. Their rebounding line was like 10, six, five, four—they had everybody, all of their players were contributing and rebounding. You can’t really rely on one person. You may not get eight to 10 rebounds, but if you can get four or five in your direction and those are hustle plays, we have to come up with those. We are not getting enough of them in the game. That’s what the difference has made. You have a guy like Ben getting 12, 15, 16 rebounds. Other guys have to do their part. Tim gets 10, and our other guys don’t really come up. They are playing a lot of minutes not to get rebounds. When you have guys out of the floor, playing 34, 35 minutes, getting two rebounds, it’s not enough.
“We have to keep practicing and going after it and talk about the importance of it. It’s cost us some games. If we won the rebounding war the other night, we would have won the basketball game the. It’s as simple as that because you don’t give them second-chance opportunities. We did that. They had 20 points on second-chance opportunities the other night, and you get the game into overtime.”
On what Victor brings to the team…
“He’s going to bring his sense of urgency and toughness, something we haven’t played with in that post area. He’s another post guy who can really defend on the perimeter. If we had to switch, he can really keep a guard in front of him. That helps with our shot clock that he can actually guard out there with a perimeter guy for several seconds if need be. We think that is going to work to our advantage, as well.”
On Gardner-Webb…
“They are really good. They are good perimeter shooters. Their post guy is all-conference. Nelson is an all-conference preseason pick. He had a good year. He had 16 against us last year. He will be a force to deal with inside. Their perimeter guys, if you give them looks, certainly (will) knock them down. They’ve played some conference (SEC) teams already. Then, they really look like they hit a stride the other night when they won by 20 at Furman. They’re a team that will come in with confidence and with an edge about them because they can drive the basketball as well and like to play in the paint. I’m sure if they watched the tape of the game against Houston, that’s maybe something they try to go to early to take advantage of us.”